Home ownership, the brand new car, expensive clothes, a unique work of art – how long does your material dream last before it becomes ruins? In The New Promise, Daniel Escobar discusses the illusionistic tricks of advertising, presenting them as one of the drivers of the fast paced consumption and disposal trend, which sustains – and devours – the current world. This individual exhibit comments on the pathetic side of our human condition reduced to consumers in the post-Fordism era, and its title carries an irony to the very system of contemporary art, which has become a mass provider of objects of high plastic appeal and low discursive density, craving young talents.
The New Promise reassembles on the exterior facade of Zipper Gallery the work Advertise Here, which was first presented inside Santander Cultural in Porto Alegre, as actual rental ad space. This time around the commercial transaction is not completed, and the billboard emerges as an intervention in the architecture and in the urban environment. However, despite being devoid of its primary function and being legitimized as artistic work, it stands as an exception in the public space of the city of São Paulo, where public outdoor ads have long been banned by law. Exposed in the street, the sign advertises itself while asserting the nature of the Gallery, and unravels artistic strategies to re-invent ethical codes and to create privilege mechanisms through art.
Daniel Escobar balances pop visuality with elaborate concepts. Creating well finished and aesthetically pleasing works of art, the artist allures viewers through form, to soon after insert them in the critical universe of his speech, located far beyond simple appearance.
Tal como outros equipamentos culturais cariocas – e brasileiros, o CMAHO viveu anos de precariedade, sobrevivendo com exÃguas verbas. DestituÃda de identidade, a instituição perdeu relevância, apresentando exposições ora boas ora medÃocres, que ocupavam as galerias como barrigas de aluguel. O declÃnio impactou tanto o perfil institucional como a estrutura fÃsica do local, o que levou à interdição do segundo andar e seu lindo salão.